Time Flies (But The Memories Remain)
by SereneCalamity
Summary: It had been a long time since they had seen each other, and it just brought all the memories back. The good and the bad. FourTris. OneShot.


_So this song, and the title, was inspired by_ September _sung by Daughtry. They're incredible, and their music makes my heart break, and this is what came of listening to this song on repeat too many times!_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, or the song, only the story._

It had been almost three years since Tobias Eaton had been back to his home town. Straight out of high school he had signed up to become a part of the military, and he hadn't looked back after signing up for a second tour. But his aunt was sick, and she was his only living relative and had raised him for pretty much his whole life, he knew that he needed to go back and looked after her.

So now he was stuck back at home, and with all the memories that came with being there.

"Yo, man! Didn't know you were back!" Peter Hayes shouted out from across the bar. Tobias glanced over and saw his old friend sitting at a booth with a couple of girls on either side of him, and another one of his friends, Will Hughes, was sitting opposite him. Both of them looked well on their way to being completely and truly drunk. Tobias glanced back toward the bar and then decided he really should re-join his old friends, or the time he was going to spend back here was going to drag on. He walked over to the group at the booth and gave them a tight smile, reaching out his palm to slap hands with the two men.

"How long are you back for?" Will asked.

"I'm not too sure yet," Tobias replied as he slid both hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Just here to look after Aunt Jeanine."

"I heard that she wasn't doing too well," Peter gave him a sympathetic look. "But that sounds like a reason as good as any to get fucking wasted."

"That's why I'm here," Tobias agreed. Although to be completely honest, he would have been happy just sitting alone at the bar and people watching. He wasn't quite as...Quite as sociable as he once had been. Especially back here, when no one really knew what he had gone through, and his old friends were all so happy-go-lucky and completely unaware of what was going on outside of their little worlds. But he had to at least make an effort. "Can I get a bourbon?" He asked one of the waitresses who was going past with a pair of tiny shorts and shorts. She nodded with a saucy smile and headed back toward the bar.

"It looks like you've added some extra ink," Will noted as he pointed to Tobias's neck.

"Is that like a soldier thing?" Peter snorted as he slipped his arm around the girl next to him and tugged her in closer to him. "I swear all your army boys have a shit ton of tattoos." Tobias shrugged and then glanced upwards as the waitress brought over his drink.

"It might be, I don't know. I can't speak for every soldier out there," Tobias muttered as he swallowed back half of his tumbler of bourbon. Peter and Will exchanged looks at his surly attitude, but didn't say anything more about it. They changed the conversation and started talking about some girl they had seen at a party last weekend who had ended up on top of the kitchen table and taking off all her clothes.

Sounded like nothing had really changed here.

Tobias sat through almost two hours of conversation with them, although it wasn't really conversation that he contributed much too, before he told them he was going to head off home. Maybe he should have taken a taxi, but he didn't want to. He wanted to walk, and try and clear his head. His doctor had also told him that he needed to get his much exercise he could, it was good for his leg. His hands were buried deep in his jean pockets, his shoulders slumped under the leather jacket he was wearing. The night wind was blowing at his head, which was no longer covered by his mop of dark blonde hair, because he now had it cut short, as per the army regulation. He was moving stiffly, only about ten minutes away from his house when he heard a car slowing down before him.

"Four?" Came a soft, familiar voice. Tobias stopped short, looking over his shoulder to where a silver car had stopped at the curb.

 _..."I can't believe you're going to be gone in a month," she whispered, looking at him with pain in her eyes. "Remind me why you're leaving me behind?"_

 _"I'm not leaving you behind," he promised, his hands circling around her wrists. "I'm coming back."_

 _"But you don't know when," she sighed as he leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers, his nose bumping against hers. "And_ — _and you can't tell me one hundred percent that you are coming back. Isn't that what they say? There are no promises in war?" He swallowed hard, not knowing how to reply, so settled by leaning forward and pressing his mouth to her..._

"Tobias?" Beatrice 'Tris' Prior repeated, frowning at him from the car. He would know that voice anyway, plus she was the only one who called him by his varsity jacket number, it had always been a thing between them. She had the window wound down and she was looking at him as though seeing a ghost. She swallowed hard and looked up and down the footpath before her eyes settled back on him. "Did you want a ride home?" Tobias still hadn't answered, staring at her, before finally he blinked and nodded. She wound up her window and unlocked the doors, waiting as he came around to settle in the passenger seat. "I didn't know you were back."

"I've only been here for a few days," Tobias finally murmured.

"Long enough to go out and get drink," Tris muttered, but she didn't say anything more as she pulled away from the curb. "Are you at Jeanine's?" Tobias jerked his head in a nod. They were outside the house in a couple of minutes and Tris swallowed hard as she looked over at him. She had cut her hair, and put a couple of lighter blonde streaks through.

"I liked your long hair," Tobias said. She took in a deep breath and looked back out the front window of her car.

"I have to go," Tris's voice was low, but the strength in her voice was clear. Tobias gave one sharp nod before he got out of the car and headed up to the house. His time away at war had taught him a lot of things, one of those things was to know when someone was watching you, even without seeing them. And he knew that Tris was watching him all the way up to the steps and to the door.

* * *

Tris had been sitting on the floor of her shower for nearly an hour now. The water had stopped running warm about twenty minutes ago, and Christina Kravitz was going to have her had when she woke up in the morning and there was no hot water left. It had been three years since she had seen Tobias, but it had only been twelve months since she had spoken with him last.

 _..."Tobias? Tobias is that you?" She asked, her heart expanding in her chest as she heard shouting and banging on the other end of the phone. "Four?!"_

 _"Tris, it's me," he finally said to her, and a smile almost broke her face in half._

 _"Four, ohmygod," she sighed, running her hand over her face. "What's going on? When are you coming back? Your tour finished two weeks ago."_

 _"Tris, I_ — _" she could hear him breathing heavily into the phone and she suddenly knew that things were not okay. Whatever he was about to tell her, she wasn't going to like. Similar to when he had first told her that he had signed up to go over there in the first place. "Tris, I've signed on for another tour."..._

She had screamed into her pillow and thrown things around her room until every photo in her room was broken and her window was shattered. Christina was at work, the neighbours were away on holiday, no one heard her pain. When her friend got home, she had found Tris on the ground beside her bed, curled up in a ball. She had seen the trashed room and knew that it had to do with Tobias. Originally she had thought that he was dead, but Tris managed to stutter out that he was staying for another year.

"Shit," she growled as she got off the floor and turned off the shower. She reached out and snatched up a towel from the rack outside. She scrubbed down her hair and then wrapped it around her body. Her stomach was in knots and her throat felt as though it was closing in.

But then that was Tobias for her.

Feelings of being left behind was how he had always made her feel.

* * *

"Tobias," Jeanine Matthew's called out for her nephew, her voice hoarse. He came into her room, his face worried as he looked her over. "Can you please get me some more water?"

"Course," Tobias gave her a small smile as he walked back into the kitchen. He grabbed the jug of water out of the fridge and poured it into a cup. There was a lid with a straw attached that the doctors had recommended and he screwed it on before heading back to the bedroom. Jeanine took it from him with a shaky hand and sucked the water through the straw. He sat down on the seat next to the bed, propping his feet up on the table at the end of the bed and looking at the TV.

"Feet off," Jeanine said warningly, nodding her head down toward the table where his feet were. Tobias gave her a lazy smirk before dropping his feet. "I don't want you to be cooped up in her. This must be hell for you."

"I'm here to help looked after you, Aunt J," Tobias told her. "I'm not here to be running around and doing shit. Plus," he looked down at his leg in disgust. "You know that it's not exactly that simple." Jeanine saw the way he was looking at himself and she sighed, reaching over to touch his arm.

"Darling," she murmured. "There's nothing to be ashamed of. What happened was in the process of defending your country, and trying to save your friend."

"I don't want to talk about it," Tobias muttered. Jeanine pursed her lips together and turned her eyes back toward the TV that was playing at the foot of the bed. Tobias tried to focus on the TV, but his mind kept wandering, flickering to his leg and the reason behind how it had happened to him. It was a day that he tried to suppress, but one that always managed to find him in the middle of the night.

 _..."Eaton! On your right!" There was bullet fire all around him, his ears were ringing, and he could only faintly hear his friend shouting at him. His grip adjusted on his weapon as he aimed and fired._

 _This wasn't meant to be like this._

 _It was meant to be a simple in and out, but now they were being attacked by insurgents from all sides._

 _They were hopelessly outnumbered._

 _But a soldier never gave up._

 _Suddenly there was an explosion behind him and he was thrown forward, slamming down on the ground as something behind them had burst outward. There was a concrete and metal flying everywhere, and he could taste blood in his mouth. He tried to swallow, but it was dry from the dust and tasted metallic from his bleeding gums and lips..._

"I think you're right," Tobias suddenly said, getting up, purposefully distributing his weight evenly between both legs. "I'm just going out for a walk. You've got your phone close by, right?" Jeanine held it up.

"I will call you if anything goes wrong," she assured him. "You know that." Tobias nodded, leaning forward to kiss her briefly on the cheek before walking out of the room. He wasn't too sure where he was heading, all he knew was that he needed to distract himself. And sitting next to his sick aunt and watching re-runs of _Doctor Phil_ on the TV just wasn't doing it for him.

Max Pheifer had died the same day that Tobias had been flown into an emergency hospital to have his leg tended to. He had been honourably discharged from the army, with a medal for his bravery in carrying Max out. He had been bleeding and his arm had been blown off by the bomb, and he clearly wasn't going to make it, but there was no way in hell that Tobias was leaving his partner behind. And now he was back in this town, without any hope of going back to the only place where he felt as though he had made a difference, and his frustration was building in the pit of his stomach.

He walked and walked until he was back at a place that he thought he would never be again.

The school field.

Tobias remembered years ago when they were on this field, when he had been the football captain and he hadn't thought that there was anything better than running off in front of the crowds and putting down the ball, scoring the final touch down. And then Tris would run toward him, looking completely ravishing in her head cheerleading outfit with her hair in a high ponytail with a colourful streamer woven in. He would pick her up and spin her around and kiss her, and then his team mates would surround him, cheering out his name.

Yes.

There had been a time when he thought that would be enough.

That was until his older brother had some back into town, broken but satisfied, telling Tobias that he was so glad that he had joined the army and had become a part of something that was bigger than himself. It had only taken a few months before Tobias decided that _this_ was what he had wanted to do with his life.

And now, after only three short years, that was gone.

 _..."What are you talking about?" She was so confused as she looked at him, her eyes searching his as though looking to find the joke or the punch line. But he met her gaze with steady eyes and she realized that he was telling the truth. Her face drained of all colour and she spun away from him, walking unsteadily over to the window, bracing her arms on the window sill and taking deep breaths._

 _"Baby..." he said softly._

 _"No, I just..." she swallowed hard. "I just need a minute, okay? Or an hour...Maybe a week," she let out a bitter chuckle. "It's not really something that's easy to adjust to, you know?" That was a rhetorical question, he knew that, so he stayed quiet. The room fell into quiet for a moment before she turned around to look at him, wet tracks down her face and her eyes rimmed red. "You're coming back to me, okay? You have to come back to me."_

 _"You know I will."..._

He had promised Tris that he would come back to her. But after his training and then his first tour, he couldn't just come back. Max had already signed on for another tour, along with most of the other men in the his unit. Only one man hadn't signed up again, he was going to go home and spend time with his wife and his newly born daughter, and wait until he was called again.

Tris had waited for him for two years. She had visited him on base whenever he was back in the country, and she had written to him religiously. They had talked on the phone and they had skyped. At first it was almost every day, or every chance that he had. But as time went by, it had faded. She had her own life that she needed to focus on, and he had been pulling her back. He knew that. Her friends were off getting drunk, going through the typical university experience, when she had to stay home on Friday or Saturday nights, on the off chance that he would have a moment to get through to her.

Maybe there was a tiny part of him that had signed up for that next tour because he knew that she was better off without him, but that he was never going to be able to say that to her face, and he couldn't face living in the same town as her without being with her.

When they talked on the phone, after he signed up, it was never said, but they both knew it was over.

He made his way over to the stands which were damp from the rain that had fallen only a couple of hours before. Tobias didn't care as he walked up the steps on the side, his leg a painful reminder that the last time he went up the steps he was running, rather than walking, and that was something he was going to be able to do. He sat down on the top plastic bench, leaning back against the wet railing and looking out over the field.

"So, Mr Quarterback," came a soft voice from the bottom of the steps. "You come here often?" He looked down at his eyebrows raised in surprise when he saw Tris standing there. She wasn't smiling, but she didn't look as angry as she did last night.

"It's crazy that this place hasn't changed at all," Tobias noted, swallowing hard.

"I know," Tris nodded. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket and started walking up the stairs. Her ascent was quicker than his and then she sat down next to him, only a few inches away so that he could smell her perfume and feel her heat. "I come back here sometimes, and think things through. It's a good place to think." Tobias looked down at the field and then dropped his eyes to the gap in the bleachers, a small smile on his face.

"Do you remember when we tried weed for the first time? Right underneath these bleachers?" He let out a short laugh. "You were so tragic."

"I didn't want to!" Tris protested, her eyes widening at the memory. "I knew I was going to make an idiot out of myself! I could barely handle alcohol, I knew I wasn't going to be able to handle weed!" She was grinning now and Tobias stared at her. He had never forgotten how pretty she looked when she smiled, and it looked as though that smile had only become more gorgeous.

 _...The giggling was uncontrollable. He had told her a couple of times to be quiet, that someone was going to hear them, and so she had slapped her hand over her mouth and her eyes had widened comically large. But then she would just dissolve into a puddle of laughs, and he couldn't stop himself from joining her._

 _"How can people do this all the time?" She sighed when they had come down from their high. They were now laying on the blanket he had spread out under the bleaches, and staring up at the gaps through the benches above them and at the night sky. "I'm so tired now. And I'm really hungry."_

 _"That's called the munchies," he teased her. "And some people like that feeling."_

 _"I just want to sleep," she mumbled, turning over onto his body and throwing an arm around him, nestling in close to his side..._

"Were you ever going to tell me about your leg?" Tris asked, looking across at him.

"My leg?" Tobias muttered, trying to put the conversation as long as possible.

"Yeah, Four," Tris rolled her eyes at him. "Your leg. And you're a shitty liar, especially when it comes to me." Four couldn't stop his smile, despite the uncomfortable situation, and he tilted his head to look over at her.

"Aren't you going to be a primary school teacher? Shouldn't you be watching her language?" He teased her lightly.

"The official title is early childhood care," Tris replied primly, but there was a smile on her mouth. "And it's younger that primary, it's before they go there. But, yes," she made a face. "Yeah, I really need to stop swearing." Tobias smiled at her and nodded. "But we're not talking about me. Where you going to tell me?"

"I wasn't sure we were on talking terms," he said truthfully. She pursed her lips together and let out a breath through her nose.

"I guess," she muttered. She ran her fingers through her hair and crossed her arms over her chest. It was getting colder, the wind biting at them, but neither of them moved. Clouds were crowding in, and it looked as though it was going to start raining again. It wasn't until there were a couple of drops that fell and splashing against the plastic and metal of the bleachers. "Did you drive here? Or did you want a ride home?"

"No, no, it's okay," Tobias started shaking his head.

"So you expect me to let a hurt soldier walk home in the rain?" Tris shot back at him as she stood up. He made a face at her.

"I really don't like being looked at like that," he said almost under his breath. Tris looked as though she immediately regretted her words, but she didn't apologize. He hated it when people apologized for saying something that they didn't regret, even if it hurt the other person. And she knew that, so she held her tongue.

"Then, do you expect me to let an old friend walk home in the rain?" She rephrased. He stared up at her for a long moment before finally nodding. He followed her down the steps, appreciating the way that she took steps a little bit slower but didn't make it obvious that she was slowing down for his sake. The heavens opened up as they reached the field, and they let down a bucket of rain. Tris automatically started walking faster, almost breaking out in a run, and Tobias tried to run a little faster, his leg holding him back. She unlocked her car and slid inside, turning on the engine and the heater as she waited for him to get into the passenger seat. By the time he got inside, he was wet right through his clothes to his skin, and he shook his head, sending water flying through the car. "Ohmygod!" Tris shrieked, trying to duck away from him and letting out a laugh. Tobias's eyes were wide as he heard her laugh, a small smile on his face.

 _..."No! I won't do it! No!" She was yelling, but there was a smile on her face._

 _"Yes, you will!" He grinned at her and grabbed both of her hands. "You've got this, babe. You know that I'm going to be right here next to you." She made a face and took a few steps closer to the edge of the cliff, looking down below to where their friends were already in the water, shouting up at them. The wind was whipping through her long hair and sending scatters of goosebumps over her skin._

 _"If I die, I want you to know, that it's your fault," she said with a warning look on her face, but a knowing twinkle in her eye._

 _"I'll take that risk," he replied. "Come on. Move your ass!" She finally let him take her hand and lead him to the edge of the cliff, the pair of them readying to jump..._

Jeanine's house were only a few minutes drive from the school and as they parked up outside, it was a very similar scenario to when she had dropped him off the other night. But they both felt different, the tension between them wasn't there anymore. There was _something_ there, but it wasn't anger this time.

"So, uh, why did you cut your hair?" Tobias asked, hoping that she wasn't going to cut him down like she had before. Tris made a face, leaning back in her seat and letting her hand go to her hair, fiddling with the short, dyed strands.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Something different, I guess." He was quiet as he looked at her, knowing that there was more to the story and wondering if she was going to carry on. There was a time when she would tell him everything, but he had given up the right to be that part of her life a long time ago. Tris tilted her head as she looked over at him. "Every time I looked in the mirror and I saw the girl with the long hair, and I saw the girl I was when I was with you, and it was too painful." Tobias sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth and she sighed. "I'm not trying to make you feel bad..."

"No, that's fine," he murmured. They fell quiet, but she didn't ask him to get out, so he stayed where he was.

"I thought that you were never going to come back!" Tris suddenly burst out. "I thought that I was never going to be able to see you again, and I couldn't look at myself every single day and see the person I was when I was with you, because thinking that I couldn't go back to that was too much for me to deal with!" Tobias's eyes were wide as she looked over at her. "I know you—I know that when you set your mind to something, you'll die before you let it get away from you. And you wanted to be over there. You wanted to be a soldier, and you wanted to be in the army...I honestly didn't think I was going to see you again until it was in a casket," she choked out the last word.

"Tris..." Tobias sighed. "Tris, you know that—you know that's not true."

"What are you on about, Four?!" He was glad that at least she was calling him by his old nickname.

"I mean...I mean I would have come back to you," he said. "I mean that after my second tour was up, I would have come back. You're the first person I wanted to see when I was given leave. I wouldn't have even signed up for the second tour straight away if it hadn't been for the amount of men that had to be taken out after our first time. The boys they were sending it to replace them...They were just kids. They didn't know what to expect. They needed to have as many as experienced people there as they could get."

"There's no shortage of men who could gave gone back instead of you!" Tris snapped.

"Tris...You don't understand what it's like until you're over there. There was no way that I could live with myself if I didn't go back in," he murmured. She was quiet for a long time, staring down at her hands. Finally she snorted and shook her head.

"You're such a good man," she muttered. He frowned at the change in tune.

"What?" He asked carefully.

"You're such a good man," she repeated, this time twisting her head to look over at her. "That's what made it harder," she scratched her head and then leaned her elbow against the wheel, resting her head in it so that she was looking at him. "You were only doing the right thing, and I was being insanely selfish, and I knew that, and it made me hate you even more, and then—" she broke off, taking in deep breaths to try and calm herself down. "God, I sound like such a girl right now," she muttered.

"Good thing you are one, right?" Tobias attempted to joke and she let out a short laugh at his pitiful attempt.

"That was bad, and you know it," she told him, running her fingers through the short strands of her hair and then looking out the window. He never let his eyes leave her, looking at the way her shoulders jerked and then heard her sniff.

"Hey, hey," he reached out for her. "Hey, don't cry."

"I'm not crying," she mumbled and this time he let out a laugh.

"Now _that_ was bad, and you know it," he said. His hand closed around her wrist and he tugged gently. She resisted him for a minute, before letting her head turn back to face him. There were single track marks down each cheek, her eyes brimming with more unshed tears. He swallowed hard and reached up to brush his finger over her cheek, swiping away the tear. "You know there's never been anyone except you, right?" She stared at him uncertainly. "There's _never_ been anyone except you." She bit down on her lower lip and then hesitantly leaned forward. He met her halfway, their mouths touching softly for a second, before they pulled back and looked at each other.

"Oh, uh," Tris let out a shaky breath. "I don't know if—I think that—um..."

"No, no, that's fine," Tobias quickly pulled away from her. "I shouldn't—we shouldn't—"

"I didn't mean it like that," Tris said, letting her hand rest on his arm. "I mean, maybe...Maybe we shouldn't do this here. In this car." His eyes widened in surprise and she gave him a small smile. "You really think I'm going to let you go after what you just told me?"

 _..."I love you, baby," he murmured against her shoulder as he left soft, fleeting kisses down her arm and reaching her hand. He turned it over and kissed the inside of her wrist, letting his tongue flicker out over the sensitive skin and relishing the shiver than ran through her. He looked back at her face, which was tilted back and her eyes were closed, her chest rising and falling rapidly._

 _"I love you too," she managed to say as he ran his fingers down her naked body, pulling her closer to him..._

It had only been one time, one time before he had left. When she visited him on base they didn't really have any time alone, and they spent most of it just trying to catch each other up on what they were doing. There was one time, when he was at the base and she skyped him, and she was wearing underwear and one of his shorts, and he had contemplated asking her how she felt about maybe revealing a little more, but he didn't want to cheapen what they had together.

But as their lips came together, everything rushed back like a flood.

 _..."I'm going to miss you," he whispered as she rose over him, her legs on either side of his waist, her eyes never leaving his. "I'm going to miss you every second." Her lower lip quivered and he knew that the emotion was just as strong in her as it was in him. She blinked, trying to push back the tears._

 _"I'm going to miss you too," she managed to say, a catch in her voice..._

"God, I've missed you so much," Tobias murmured against her mouth as they fell into the house. His room was out the back, in the old sleep out, and they stumbled through the hall until they reached the back door, ripping it open and falling back into the rain. Tris let out a giggle as he lead them backwards, almost slipping over on the tiled path as they walked toward the sleep out.

"We're going to need to dry our clothes," Tris mumbled as they opened the door to the his room. It as warmer there, and dry.

"Such a pity," he smirked.

 _...They were tangled together, breathing in each others air, their hands bruising over one anothers bodies. She moaned lightly as he pushed into her, and she arched her back as he stared down at her. It was her first time, and it was something that she had always planned on giving to him, and she knew deep down in her bones that she wasn't going to regret this._

 _It was him._

 _It had always been him..._

"I'm the same, Four," Tris gasped out against his mouth as she pushed him back on the bed. He stared at her for a minute, before he cupped her face and drew her in close. His fingers brushed at the edge of her short hair, which was wet from the rain, and he scratched lightly at the back of her neck. "There's never been anyone else except you."

The memories and the present all crashed together as they pulled at each others damp clothes, throwing them to the ground as they fell onto the duvets, their bodies moulding together.

 _Let me know if you guys enjoyed it!_

 _This was fun to write, and I love your feedback :)_


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